Jones is a beguiling presence and this time round her porcelain allure enchants an older man played by Guy Pearce – Keith, a gifted high-school music teacher whose creative career was cut short 17 years earlier when he and his wife had their daughter. The family functions well enough until Jones's exchange student, Sophie, comes from Berkshire to spend a semester in their sprawling east coast home. As the mother, Amy Ryan is warm and welcoming, while her daughter Lauren, played by newcomer Mackenzie Davis, is equally generous and invites Sophie into her circle of friends.

Sophie and Keith maintain a respectful distance, although straight away it is clear little fireworks are going off. Circumstances conspire to draw them closer. The visitor, emboldened by a new social group, sheds her timid demeanour and begins to engage Keith in conversation. The older man indulges her, but takes it no further until Sophie delivers a virtuoso piano recital in his music class. Once Keith hears her tinkle the ivories, he recognises a kindred spirit and starts to wander around with a watery smile on his face.

The story of the ingenue who enters the fold and awakens deep feelings is nothing new, but Doremus makes it all utterly captivating. He mines just the right amount of drama and spontaneous comedy from each moment and the foreshadowing is perfectly weighted. As they did on Like Crazy, Doremus and co-screenwriter Ben York Jones wrote a detailed outline for each scene without dialogue and rehearsed with the cast for several weeks while they improvised the words.

It helps to have a fine cast. Pearce is rarely disappointing, and as Keith, brings a deceptively shallow authority that Sophie can see right through. Jones impresses again and imbues Sophie with a wise head and a gently haunted manner that speaks to an almost prescient awareness of how all this is likely to end. Ryan and Davis have less to do but offer strong support.

Breathe In allows Doremus to venture into darker territory than he did in Like Crazy (not to mention his earlier film Douchebag, which played in Park City in 2010). But he takes care not to let things get out of hand or become divorced from the reality of the situation. It is a finely calibrated piece of work from one of the more talented US film-makers to emerge in recent years.

• This article was amended on Tuesday 22 January 2013. The standfirst originally said that Breathe In is director Drake Doremus's third film. It's his fifth. This has been corrected.